The Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe, it's [i]so good![/i]  Book two is coming out this year and I'm getting it as soon as it hits the shelves, I'm so hyped!  The tl;dr is that it's about a world where the gods created towers at various points about the map with traps, puzzles, and enemies within.  People can enter the tower and if they escape, they're blessed with a mark that grants magical power, with different marks giving different magical abilities.  However, after they've gotten their mark they can go in again to attempt getting further up the tower for other rewards.  It goes really in-depth about the magic system and life in a society with that type of magic, and I love it so much.  I don't want to go into too much detail since I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you're even remotely interested in magic systems and/or tabletop RPG inspired fantasy, I highly recommend checking it out.

I can't say I have much experience with bad fantasy novels.  As crazy as this might sound, I think Harry Potter might be my least favorite of the ones I can remember reading.  There are so many books out there that I'd like to read that I just don't bother with any that might be considered poor.  Harry Potter of course got a lot of hype around it so I finally got around to checking it out a few years ago and I wasn't really a fan of the writing style.  It was very Roald Dahl, which I can respect as he was a famous author and an inspiration to many, but his stories weren't grounded enough for my tastes.

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On the topic of fantasy, what is your favorite fantasy species and why?  It can be from books, movies, games, doesn't matter, just give an explanation to what they are perhaps for those of us who might not be familiar with the material.  It doesn't have to be a species you'd want to be yourself, just a species that you felt was well thought out and designed.